We are hard line agnostics, though the school have convinced Kiran (5) that she's a christian. We're Ok with that, it's ultimately her choice, just as Finn (9) has decided he's not.

I'm not going to crush her nascent faith, because religion can influence a positive disposition - religious folk are statistically happier, live longer, and are more resilient, for instance.

Where I do have a bucket of scorn to chuck over the Christian narrative though is its depiction of of all babies who aren't Jesus as sullied with original sin, while Jesus was pure, blameless, and come to save the world with love. Doesn't that describe all babies? Doesn't cuddling a baby make everything better?

And then there's 'Away in a Manger' & 'Silent Night' which tell us that little baby Jesus doesn't cry, which implies that it's their inherent badness that compels normal babies to give their parents a hard time; nothing to do with teething pains, hunger or soiled nappies.